The First Sontarans (audio story)

The First Sontarans
Doctor:	Sixth Doctor
Companion(s):	Peri
Main enemy:	Sontarans, Rutan Host
Main setting:	Mare Nectaris, the Moon, 1872 Sussex, England, 1872
Key crew
Publisher:	Big Finish Productions
Writer:	Andrew Smith
Director:	Ken Bentley
Producer:	David Richardson
Music:	Jamie Robertson
Sound:	Jamie Robertson
Cover by:	Alex Mallinson
Release details
Release number:	3.06
Release date:	23 July 2012
Format:	4 Episodes on 2 CDs
Official trailer
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The Lost Stories
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The First Sontarans was the sixth release in the third series of The Lost Stories. It provided the Sontarans with an origin story, something which, unlike many of the Doctor's other recurring enemies, had not been provided before. This was only the third full cast audio story to feature the Rutans, the first being the Bernice Summerfield audio story The Bellotron Incident, released in 2003 followed by Castle of Fear in 2009.

Publisher's summary

1872. After finding a strange signalling device on the moon, the Doctor and Peri travel to the depths of the English countryside to track down the source of its transmissions. But they're not the first aliens to arrive on the scene.

Old enemies of the Doctor are drawing their battle lines in the forest and the local humans will be lucky to escape the conflagration unscathed.

For hidden within this village is a deadly secret - a secret that could destroy the entire Sontaran race... and reveal the terrible mystery of their creation.

Plot

Part one

to be added

Part two

to be added

Part three

to be added

Part four

to be added

Cast

• The Doctor - Colin Baker
• Peri - Nicola Bryant
• Fleet Marshal Jaka/ Barclay - Dan Starkey
• Jacob Gilley - Anthony Howell
• Jane Ross - Lizzie Roper
• The Gentleman/ Commander Lork - John Banks
• Major Thessinger/ Commander Strek - Cameron Stewart

References

Cultural references from the real world

• The Doctor refers to Neil Armstrong and the Apollo 11 moon landing on 20 July 1969.

Individuals

• Major Thessiger's father fought in the Battle of Waterloo on 18 June 1815. Furthermore, Thessiger claims that he himself fought in the Battle of Inkerman on 5 November 1854 during the Crimean War.

Planets

• The Doctor takes Leandra to Calisto 4 to heal after her wound from a Sontaran blaster.

Timeline

• Meredid and Leandra Roath have been on Earth since the early 1860s.

Species

• The Doctor refers to the Sontarans' sworn arch-enemies the Rutan Host. The two species have been at war for millennia.
• A Sontaran patrol numbers seven.
• The Kaveetch were natives of Sontar. They worked with an infiltration scout.
• The Kreliban from Krelibas were once a well established military force in the Mutter's Spiral. Now, they are slaves in the Rutan Empire.

TARDIS

• The Doctor is able to preserve Leandra's life using the Zero Room.

Notes

• This is the first Big Finish audio drama to feature both the Sontarans and the Rutan Host.
• Writer Andrew Smith removed all of the Mary Celeste scenes from the original TV script and instead added a reference. According to Smith, when he was originally writing the TV episode, he became highly disturbed when his research about the Mary Celeste turned into him knowing every detail about all the crew who died on the ship.

Continuity

• The Doctor and Peri would return to the Moon when they visited the Gogglebox in the far future. (AUDIO: The Reaping)
• The Doctor refers to the disappearance of the crew of the Mary Celeste in 1872. The Doctor refers to the Daleks' involvement in the incident. The First Doctor and his companions Ian Chesterton, Barbara Wright and Vicki Pallister were indirectly involved in the crew's disappearance. (TV: The Chase) The Doctor had discovered his own involvement with the crew's disappearance by the time of his second incarnation. (AUDIO: The Rosemariners) The Fifth Doctor had told Alan Fitzgerald, a student summer intern at the Gogglebox, that he was "sort of" responsible. (AUDIO: The Gathering)
• The Doctor and Peri previously encountered the Sontarans in Seville, Spain in 1985. (TV: The Two Doctors)
• The Doctor tells Roath and Fleet Marshal Jaka that he is aware that the Sontarans possess rudimentary time travel technology as he previously witnessed it in operation. (TV: The Time Warrior, The Two Doctors)

External links

• Official The First Sontarans page at bigfinish.com
• DisContinuity for The First Sontarans at Tetrapyriarbus - The DisContinuity Guide